Spiffy:

Iffy:

Still too early for us to play it; cutscenes still need some tweaking before prime time.

Although it's still in the alpha stages, Tony Hawk's Project 8 seems to wow everyone who's taken a look at it. While the last generational leap brought us a better-looking Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 with bigger levels, Project 8 is bringing the pain in more ways than one. The series has been in a constant evolution over the years. In retrospect, every Hawk game has delivered a contribution to the overall experience of playing. While we could pinpoint each one in each game and why it's important, that's the stuff that useless essays are made of. Basically, it's been four years since the last Pro Skater game, and the game has gone through storyline tangents, Jackass-inspired makeovers, and a game that promised that experts could skate from Santa Monica to East LA in one combo, even if we don't know anyone who's pulled it off. Every bit of those has been poured into Project 8 to deliver a true and genuine upgrade to the franchise. Neversoft has put all of their energy into working on this title; the current-gen versions will be produced by Shaba Games, who ported THUG 2 to PSP.

First off, the story has been pared down a bit from the past three titles, though we're not sure precisely how much, as Neversoft's Brian Bright went straight into the skating action. It seems that the idea behind the game is that players must work their way from the upper-hundreds ranks to number eight in the world. As Bright and his assistant mowed through the menus to go straight to the action, we got a few more details out of them. In the tradition started by 2003's Tony Hawk's Underground, players create their own skater, although this time it seems that they'll be able to put a specific fashion flavor on their character with looks such as punk, surfer, hip-hop, or skater girl motifs. We saw a cutscene of a newscaster interviewing Tony Hawk as he invites skaters worldwide to compete. While it looked next-gen, it definitely showed that the game is in its alpha stages and isn't ready for prime time just yet. The new virtual Hawk looked a bit lifeless and overly lit at this point. Hopefully, they'll rein that in and find a way to put some life into the Birdman's CG eyes before release. Otherwise, the textures look rather polished and realistic; the details in small things like the asphalt add to the overall experience.

Since the game is less about the dream of becoming a pro, maneuvering Steve-O through Barcelona on a mechanical bull, or moving to LA to become a Super Skater, it's all about numbers. That means that the number of feet that players travel in a manual gets calculated. The amount of cumulative air caught in a combo gets factored into that ranking. Finding that extra gap can make a huge difference now. Everything in Project 8 is stat ranked. Instead of pulling off some trick to get better ollies, it's all about distance traveled. Essentially, the more you play, the more you rank. For a beginner up to casual Hawk player, nailing every Amateur level goal will get the end results up to number 8. A combination of Pro and Sick stunts, however, will get players higher up those ranks at the end of the game.

In terms of gameplay, the innovation started with last year's American Wasteland continues, as Project 8 moves through a constantly streaming world in which there are no loads between levels. In fact, Neversoft has gone even further than that. While the last game seemed to tout a lack of loads, it wasn't completely true. In reality, it masked its loading screens by either putting players through tunnels, which probably took up fewer resources, and buses that acted as warp points, in order to mask the game's load times.